How does an iconic U.S. cultural innovation move through transnational channels over time and gain acceptance and legitimacy as something genuinely and authentically local? In an era of globalization, how do people decide whether to accept, reject, or transform foreign cultural products? Professor Tamara Kay tackles these questions and many more in her third book project which examines globalization, culture, and the politics of economic development work among U.S. NGOs and their international partners. In a recent article "Negotiating Culture on the Longest Street in the World" published by the International Sociological Association, Professor Kay reveals some of her key findings on cultural diffusion from extensive fieldwork in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and East Asia. Cultural diffusion, she argues, can best be understood as a process of negotiation and meaning construction. The project is unique not only because her case is Sesame Workshop which produces local versions of Sesame Street around the world, but also because it is one of the only diffusion studies to use observational data to track how actors make decisions about cultural adaptation in real time. She is therefore able to illuminate the nature of negotiations, how actors define and think about cultural authenticity and change, how they weigh and attribute value, and ultimately how hybridization processes unfold.

 Photo:  Professor Tamara Kay and puppeteer Fadi Alghoul in Amman, Jordan with Haneen, a furry female Muppet from Shara’a Simsim, the Palestinian co-production of Sesame Street.  ©2009 Tamara Kay. All Rights Reserved. To see video clips from different countries go to http://www.sesameworkshop.org/